Steve Wanta is the Executive Program Director for the Whole Planet Foundation. He oversees the existing portfolio of microfinance programs and analyzes new projects for funding.

Conversations can change the world.  It was one such conversation between Muhammad Yunus and John Mackey in 2004 that created the concept of Whole Planet Foundation, which supports microcredit in communities where Whole Foods Market sources products. Starting with just one team member, Philip Sansone, working in Costa Rica and Guatemala, the support from customers and team members has been so generous that we will have expanded to nearly 60 countries by the end of 2011. Thank you!

To learn more about what we are doing, watch this latest edition of Dispatches from the Field, this time from Indonesia.

Gratitude is the word that best defines how I feel about my “job” — I hesitate to use the “J” word to describe what I get to do for Whole Planet Foundation.  For the past five years it has been my honor to oversee the microfinance programs that the Foundation supports globally.

To date, we have been able to authorize more than $15 million in funds to microfinance partners in 32 countries because of the generosity of Team Members, Customers, Suppliers and Whole Foods Market.  We view the trust of our stakeholders as a tremendous responsibility and work to ensure that these funds are being directed to strong, mission-driven organizations that are dedicated to alleviating poverty through the provision of financial services.  In order to manage projects across the globe, Whole Planet Foundation has built a team of international development professionals who live in and travel throughout the developing world.  Whole Foods Market continues to cover the operating expenses of the Foundation so that 100% of donations go directly to our partners in the field.

While traveling through Asia working with our newest Regional Director and providing direct support to our partner in Indonesia, we will be putting together another series of Dispatches from the Field so our supporters can get a glimpse into the work our team does in the field.  On this trip, we will be visiting partners in Indonesia, East Timor, Thailand, and Vietnam.  Thank you for joining us! You can learn more on Whole Planet Foundation’s website, Facebook, and Twitter pages.

In this final installment of Dispatches from the Field, Steve visits the Pro Mujer

headquarters in Salta, Argentina and operations in Tucuman, Argentina, where Whole Foods Market sources blueberries.  His interviews with Pro Mujer clients, Pinky and Graciela, unveil the power of access to credit in their communities, where these women have been able to build support networks and find access to affordable healthcare services.

On this leg of his trip through South America, Steve explores Paraguay and opportunities for building a microcredit program in the country where Whole Foods Market sources its organic sugar cane.  Steve experiences the hospitality of folks who remember Phillip Sansone, Executive Director of the Whole Planet Foundation, from his days as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay over 30 years ago.

In this installment of Dispatches from the Field, Steve and Philip brave oxygen deprivation and “Death Road” (renowned as the most dangerous road in the world) to reach folks in the rural communities of Bolivia with Pro Mujer to provide financial services coupled with health and education.

Steve Wanta and Phillip Sansone of the Whole Planet Foundation meet with women entrepreneurs of Peru who have benefited from microloans from the Whole Planet Foundation. In less than one year, working with Pro Mujer, The Whole Planet Foundation has provided loans to over 1200 woman. This capital has allowed these entrepreneurs to grow their businesses, provide for their families and plan for the future in ways that were previously unavailable.

Steve Wanta sends us this video from Facatativa, Colombia where the Whole Planet Foundation team is doing a feasibility study to determine whether the foundation can support and sustain a microcredit loan program.

Join Steve Wanta as he travels South America visiting current Whole Planet Foundation microcredit projects and seeking out new opportunities where the Foundation can provide assistance.

In my humble opinion, poverty is the most pressing problem facing the world today. It either magnifies the devastation of other global issues like HIV or is the direct cause of epidemics like vitamin A deficiency in infants.  The 1.2 billion people living on less than $1/day confront a fight for survival on a daily basis.  Their plight has been well documented.  Equally, people are recognizing the poor’s inalienable ability to be their own change agent with the rise of microfinance.  This was never more apparent than with the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Dr. Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank, which acknowledged the direct link between peace and prosperity.

Recently, I traveled to New York City to visit newly inaugurated Grameen America, which is bringing this method of microlending to the United States.  The women here were not starving or struggling to clothe their children but they shared the same excitement for a new future that I have seen before on the faces of poor women from Guatemala to Bangladesh.  This sort of relative poverty is less publicized and far easier for people to dismiss but is the root cause of many other problems facing our society.

The women that I visited in New York reminded me of the borrowers funded by Whole Planet Foundation in the Grameen Costa Rica program.  For the most part, they are literate, have crossed the extreme poverty threshold and have a hope for a better future for their families.  Although these women may not need to fight the risk of malaria or starvation, they are confronted with higher rates of crime and drugs, impacting their ability to raise their children in a safe environment.  In Limón Costa Rica, where Grameen operates, there is a pervasive problem with crime and drug trafficking that crosses this region en route from Colombia to the United States and elsewhere. This creates instability and uncertainty in these communities, which threatens to widen the disparity gap, both educational and economic, for these relative poor.

Even in the face of skyrocketing gas prices, a global food crisis and a tenuous world economy, it is these microentrepreneurs that give me comfort.  After visiting borrowers, I am always inspired by the power of individuals, even during the most difficult of times, to prevail.  Whether the extreme or relative poor, the story is the same; there are too few opportunities for women who live in a financial system that has forgotten them.  For communities like Jackson Heights, New York and Limón, Costa Rica, microfinance is a tool for women, and in some instances men, to capitalize on their skills so that they themselves have the financial wherewithal to overcome any obstacle, which in turn creates healthier, safer communities.